MIRACLE ON KAIMOTU ISLAND/ALWAYS THE HERO (19 page)

Not her problem. Abby could hear the almost desperate whisper in the back of her mind. Not anymore.

Tom was staring at her. Holding her gaze but keeping anything personal well shuttered. If he knew what she was thinking—and, given what she knew about him, he probably did—he wasn’t about to let it interfere with his work.

Oh...help. For a heartbeat, Abby was caught by that intense stare. Or rather by what she could see around it. The gorgeous olive skin and strong features that spoke of Maori heritage. Those dark, dark eyes. The soft, dark waves of hair.

An adult version of her precious Jack.

She couldn’t go there. Couldn’t waste another second thinking about what Tom looked like. Or how it made her feel, seeing him again like this.

‘Mike Henley is our senior police officer. He’s working with Don Johnson, who’s the chief fire officer. They have about twenty people who work in the volunteer fire brigade and have had some training in rescue. We also have our island coastguard guys. They’ve set up headquarters in the information centre, which is on the main street at the ferry terminal end. A boat radio is being used to contact the mainland. The cell phone tower is down.’

‘What medical staff are available? Where are your doctors?’

‘We only have one full-time doctor on the island at the moment—Ben McMahon. He was out on a house call when the quake happened and we haven’t heard any news since. There is another doctor but she’s not working officially and I have no idea where she is at the moment. Apart from that, we have four nurses. Two of them are on duty in the hospital. The others are on their way and they’re going to help look after injured people after we’ve assessed and stabilised them.’

‘We?’

Abby felt a flush of colour stain her cheeks. ‘So far it’s only been me. Fortunately there hasn’t been anything major arriving.’

‘We need to get to the information centre. And we need a medical team to work with. What’s the most serious case you’ve got in here?’

‘There’s nothing life-threatening. Bruises, lacerations and a few broken bones. One of our other nurses who’s coming in is trained in first aid. It’s under control.’

‘Good. You can come with us, then.’

It was a gasp rather than a huff that escaped Abby now. ‘I don’t think so.... This is where people are coming for treatment.’

‘If they can get themselves here, they’re not the victims we need to worry about first. We’ve got doctors arriving very soon and they can base themselves here. You’re an experienced emergency nurse, Abby. We’re going to need more than one team to check the township and triage for injuries. Frank can lead one. You can come with me. I take it you know the layout of the town?’

‘Of course. I’ve been living here for five years.’

A flicker crossed Tom’s face as he registered that this was where she’d come after they’d split up. A frown that suggested he couldn’t understand why. It was gone as fast as it had appeared but Abby was aware of a flash of...what, satisfaction?
Relief?
He wasn’t as unaffected as he was managing to appear. He hadn’t forgotten everything because he hadn’t cared enough.

Yes. It was a kind of relief. She wasn’t the only one who was finding this painful.

‘Good.’ Tom’s gaze had shifted away from her. ‘You’ll know the people as well, then. Could be a valuable asset.’

Torn, Abby twisted her head to look at Ruth. She could see her own reaction reflected back. She was a valuable asset here, too, wasn’t she? This felt like the right place to be. Where she had access to medical equipment and drugs and where Ben and Ginny would come to help.

This was where someone would come to reunite Jack with his mother.

And...and it was a much safer place to be than out there in the unknown, where things were wrecked and dangerous and where she could be at serious risk if there were any more of those horrible aftershocks.

But these new arrivals were the experts. They also had medical qualifications that exceeded her own. Ethically, she had no choice. She had to follow orders.

‘Let’s go.’ Frank was staring out the window. ‘We’re wasting time here, mate.’

Tom’s glare was holding Abby. Pulling her in.

‘I can’t go out like this.’ Abby held out her bare arms and looked down at the flimsy material of her uniform.

‘There’s the overalls in the back of the Jeep,’ Ruth reminded her. ‘And the helmets.’

‘You’ve got a four-wheel-drive vehicle?’ Tom was moving towards the door. ‘Excellent. Let’s move.’

The Jeep was one of the clinic’s vehicles, modified to have a stretcher clipped in the back and equipped with emergency gear. The island’s equivalent of an ambulance. Ben had the other one.

‘Go, Abby,’ Ruth urged. ‘We can cope here. People need you.’

Abby nodded. She had no choice. Tom was already halfway out the door. Frank was holding back, waiting for Abby to go ahead of him.

‘Send someone to find me,’ she told Ruth, ‘if you hear anything at all about Jack.’

‘Of course I will. He’ll be fine, Abby. They all will.’

But Ruth’s lips trembled. She had two daughters on that school trip, didn’t she? Did she have to try and make Abby believe they were all safe in order to keep herself focused?

‘Who’s Jack?’ Frank asked as he followed Abby out of the door. ‘Your husband?’

‘No.’ Abby took a deep breath as she tried to push her own fear back into its box in the corner. ‘He’s my...my son.’

* * *

Tom heard.

Abby had a child? A
son
?

Of course she’d moved on. It had been nearly six years since they’d been together. How old was this Jack? A baby? A toddler, maybe. Couldn’t be any older unless she’d moved on and replaced him pretty damn fast.

‘So you’ve got a son?’ The words escaped as Tom climbed into the front passenger seat of the Jeep.

Abby reached to switch on the ignition. ‘Mmm.’

‘And he’s in day care or something, because you’re working?’

She might have nodded. It was hard to tell because she was turning her head to see whether Frank was on board and the door was closed. It was also quite possible she was avoiding answering him by simply pretending she hadn’t heard his question.

‘How old is Jack?’ Tom knew it was none of his business. He had no right to ask personal questions and it was entirely inappropriate given the circumstances but the idea that Abby had moved on so conclusively...had had a
child
with her new man was sitting in his gut like a hot rock right now. Burning, even.

The vehicle lurched forward with enough force to make him think about fastening his seat belt instead.

‘Sorry,’ Abby said. ‘Haven’t driven this beast for a while. It’s a bit rugged.’

‘No worries,’ Frank said dryly. ‘We just won’t hand you the controls for the helicopter any time soon.’

Even when Abby was used to the clunky transmission again, the ride was no smoother. The road was badly damaged with parts that had risen into hillocks and other parts sunken and cracked. There were pools of...

‘What is that?’ Abby asked.

‘Liquefaction,’ Tom responded. ‘Silt gets driven up through the earth. Don’t drive into it. It may be filling a sinkhole and could be deep. We’d get stuck.’

Abby was now manoeuvring the vehicle very competently, driving onto the grass verge at times to avoid obstacles. For a moment, Tom stopped looking through the windscreen to spot hazards and looked at her face instead.

He saw a grimly determined profile. She must be scared stiff, he thought. She’d never been into the adrenaline rush of facing danger. She was the total opposite of someone like Fizz. Unlike any of the women he’d ever been attracted to or involved with—before or after Abby, in fact—and maybe
that
had been the attraction in the first place. It had also been the reason it could never have worked long-term. He needed to remind himself of that. Had to fight an undercurrent happening here that he didn’t even want to try and identify.

And Abby was not only facing potential personal danger here. This was her home now and people she knew well could be amongst the dead and injured. And her child was missing? Yet here she was, totally focused on what had to be done. Heading further into danger?

Tom felt a strong impulse to send her back up the hill when he and Frank had been delivered to where they needed to go. To keep her safe.

Except they needed all the medical assistance they could get. The whereabouts of the only other medics on the island were unknown. Sure, the volunteer fire brigade or civil defence guys here would be trained in first aid but he’d seen Abby in action in an emergency department. He knew she would be as capable as he was of getting an IV line in under difficult circumstances. Assessing someone’s injuries. Intubating them if necessary. She was more than capable. Abby was gifted. Working as a GP’s nurse on a remote island must be sadly underutilising her skills.

If hitting another bump wasn’t enough to bring his train of thought instantly back to his present surroundings, entering the main street of the village certainly was.

‘Oh...my God,’ Abby breathed. She slowed the vehicle, looking stunned as she took in the scene.

It must have been a very picturesque shopping centre with its old, heritage brick and stone buildings preserved and restored to enhance it as a tourist destination but they were always the type of buildings that came off worst in an earthquake. Shop facades and chimneys had toppled. Walls had crumbled, leaving skeletons of wooden framing and rooms exposed like an open doll’s house.

A car was buried under a crushing mound of bricks, with only the front wheels and bumper clearly visible.

‘Hope there wasn’t anybody inside,’ Frank said quietly.

A few metres on there was another mound of bricks and timber. There were several men here, frantically pulling at chunks of rubble. They flagged down the Jeep.

‘We need help. There’s someone under here.’

‘Are they calling?’ Tom asked.

The man shook his head, his face twisted with distress. ‘We can see her foot.’

Tom took a deep breath. ‘I’m sorry, mate, but there’s no chance she’ll be alive under there.’

‘I know...’ The man dragged in a ragged gulp of air. ‘But we’ve got to try...’

‘You need to keep yourselves safe.’ Tom pointed upwards. ‘Another aftershock could bring that lot down. Who directed you to dig here?’

He shook his head. ‘We just arrived.’

‘Follow us to the information centre. We’re going to get a plan in place for a systematic search and rescue effort. We’ll need all the help we can get.’

He turned to Abby, who was staring in horror at the gap the men were opening up in the pile of rubble. Could she see the part of the woman’s body being exposed? Was it someone she knew?

He wanted to reach out. To touch her arm and offer encouragement. Strength. Or comfort, maybe. But he would be crossing a boundary to do that. The same boundary that made it inappropriate to want to send her back to the hospital to protect her. They were no longer in any kind of relationship. Quite the opposite, and Abby would not want to reach out in any way. The boundary was an almost palpable thing. Like a glass bubble encasing Abby.

‘Drive on, Abby,’ Tom said quietly. ‘We can’t stop.’

* * *

This was far, far worse than Abby had anticipated, but it felt so unreal she knew she wasn’t going to fall apart. It was like being transported onto the set of a disaster movie and she was merely a character waiting to play her part depending on the instructions of the director.

Feeling as though she was on autopilot, she kept the vehicle going until they reached the other end of the main street. The wharf end, where the ferries berthed. She could see a police car among all the vehicles parked outside the information centre, a modern hexagonal structure that was central enough to make it an excellent choice as an operational hub.

The men who were currently the directors looked as though they were up against it.

The island had three police officers and Mike Henley was the most senior. The biggest ‘incident’, as Tom would call it, that Mike had had to deal with in recent years had been a private yacht that had gone aground in rough weather on Elephant Rocks, which were far enough offshore to have made the rescue fairly dramatic.

Mike’s best mate was Don Johnson, who was the chief fire officer for Kaimotu Island. He was also in charge of civil defence and the coastguard and, in fact, he’d been the one who’d dealt with the Elephant Rocks incident very competently.

Both men had come past the hospital on the way into the town’s centre as soon as this emergency had struck and they’d taken the time to check, as best they could, that the building that would be required for providing medical aid was safe to be inside. When the two men saw Abby come into the information centre with Tom and Frank, their relief was obvious. Expert help had started to arrive, at last.

And Abby was proud to introduce him to Tom. If anyone had asked her who she would want to turn up if she was ever in a dangerous situation and needed her life saved, Tom Kendrick would be at the very top of her list.

Even after they’d broken up.

Maybe even more so, because she knew that Tom still wouldn’t hesitate to do whatever it took to save her, even if it meant he was putting his own life at risk. And it wasn’t because he was stupid and a cowboy, as some had accused him of being. Or that he had some kind of death wish. He could calculate those risks perfectly well. He was just prepared to push the boundaries further than most.

Abby was a born worrier. She could conjure up imaginary disasters with no effort whatsoever. The habit was as ingrained as the way she tied shoelaces or slept with her head cradled in the crook of her elbow.

What would Tom think if he knew about some of the fantasy situations she’d come up with over the years? The ones that always ended with his appearance to make everything okay? The ones where he saved her and held her in his arms afterwards as if she was the most precious thing on earth? Or the ones where he saved Jack and recognised his own son?

Oh...help...

This was no fantasy. Abby stood quietly to one side as the group of men taking control of this rescue operation made swift plans. The wall behind them was covered with the kind of brochures the tourists were looking for the moment they arrived on Kaimotu Island. Invitations to charter a fishing vessel or go scuba diving. Pictures of people happily abseiling, mountain biking or taking a vineyard tour. The kind of activities Kaimotu was famous for and which now seemed no more than fantasies themselves.